On November 14th, 2005 I published the very first "Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations" on Myspace back when it was on the rise. I wanted to do something that anybody could take interest. I know I really cannot write a detailed review on a movie and I got a vision in my head that maybe I could recommend 10 diverse movies on a weekly basis and here I am over seven years. Many cannot believe I have kept this up as long as I have but to be frank, neither can I. I do it though because I enjoy it. I have done this from time to time but it's been awhile so I thought I would post my what I call unwritten rules I use to put it together.
1. No themes: The only theme I really have each week is diversity. I want each one to be quite a bit different and I want to accommodate to everyone's taste in some ways. I might start with something like SHREK, then I could go A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, then I might do some sports movie. I also do not do any kind of top ten nor will I do the 10 Sports Movie recommendations unless of course I am offered pay. The only times I have done a little bit of a theme is one week I managed to do ten different documentaries but even then I made sure each was quite different.As far as genres go, I don't really try to limit comedy, action, drama so much but I would usually limit sub-genres like you will not see SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and FULL METAL JACKET on the same list. In the end, what I am more going for is someone reading it and thinking "I'll watch this with the kids, when they go to bed I'll watch this extremely violent action movie, and I'll impress my girlfriend by watching this love story".
2. Different actors, writers, directors, etc.: This has always been the main rule. I do not use two movies with the same actor, director, or writer, even if it is just some one second cameo.
3. Here is where I begin to become more obsessive. I always listen to references to people, titles, among other things to make sure they are not said in other selections. An example is if the first movie mentions the name Hitler, none of the other nine selections can mention the name, show a photo, or feature the person. Some names like God and Jesus I don't get that technical about as long as they are not featured in more than one since I would probably get nothing done if I made that big of deal. There are a few other exceptions and I don't get obsessive to the point of places like McDonalds and Wal-Mart. It mostly applies to people, characters, and maybe titles of movies, shows, and books. I do look to see who is thanked in the credits so if I have a movie with Robert De Niro, the other selections cannot feature him nor list his name as a producer or even in the thank you credits. I always check the soundtrack at the end of the credits as well as imdb.com to make sure they have not been mentioned.
4. I always have 5 movies from the 70s and below and 5 from the 80s and
above. I always have at least one from the 30s and below and one that
is from 2011 and later.
I guess that's really about it. Any normal person would go insane but fortunately I am not normal. I also want to take the time to thank everyone who has supported me through the years. I also want to thank filmarcade.net for allowing me to publish my work on their site. I now post on Facebook and imdb. I also have a facebook page for it now on https://www.facebook.com/shaunberk as well as my own page http://shaunberkey.blogspot.com. I am now up to the 401st edition so visit that page to get some movie recommendations.
No comments:
Post a Comment